PureInsight | September 29, 2014
[PureInsight.org] Greetings revered Master and my fellow practitioners.
I'm 79 years old, and it has been 19 years since I started practicing Falun Dafa. Such an old age can make an everyday person completely immobile, but I still have good hearing and eyesight. I am even able to do some heavy labour work.
For example one day I climbed up a ladder to repair the roof on the second floor for my families. I, with other four elderly practitioners, also designed and built a parade float with a decorated archway within a week. When the task became urgent, I had to work ten hours a day. When I came back home, I still had to solve the problem of the archway design. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep on the floor the moment I reached home. When I woke up, it was two o'clock in the morning. Then I needed to consider planning the work for the next day. Soon it was time for sending forth righteous thoughts. After sending forth righteous thoughts, I did the five exercises. No matter how tiring and painful it is, I insisted on doing the fifth exercise sitting in the full-lotus position for no less than one hour and a half.
Master said in his poem "Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions":
"A Great Enlightened One fears no hardship;
Having forged an adamantine will;
Free of attachment to living or dying;
He walks the path of Fa-rectification confident and poised." (“Hong Yin II”)
I realized what Master refers to is a real practitioner who can renounce one's human attachments to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism. Only when one has the desire of saving sentient beings in his heart, can he endure through thick and thin, not be afraid of life and death, and forge an adamantine will. Cultivation is serious, and has challenging criteria. If we want to do it, we have to put in full efforts and do our best.
Every time in hardship, I consider it to be a chance to improve myself, to give up attachments and to improve my "xinxing". I hold on to my righteous thoughts and never try to take a shortcut or avoid the hardship. Only when our mind is right, can we break through the hardship successfully. Our wisdom and supernormal abilities are from our Master. I shall further share the following three experiences of changing my conventional thinking and letting go of human attachments.
I. When I came abroad in the year 2000, I left all my savings to my son in China because he had lost his job. At that time, I had been thinking that the government would demolish our house and he had to pay for a new house. Ten years had passed and the demolition never happened.
In 2009, the coordinator borrowed money from practitioners to do Shen Yun show promotion. At that time, I studied Master's Fa teaching to Australian Practitioners. Master mentioned: Do you know how much money you spend to be here once? We have only so many Dafa resources.
I realized that my money is Dafa’s resource and not for my families to buy a new house. The money should be spent on saving people. I should ask for my money back. On hearing of my idea, my families in China worried about the inconvenience when they needed the money. But I persuaded them to send the money back to me and used it on promoting Shen Yun show.
Then a miracle happened. My son found a stable job and is on the way of promotion. Instead of needing my money, he finished the house decoration by himself, and even gave me some pocket money! He then married a nice girl. When I renounced human attachments, my son's life changed for the better.
Master said, “With attachments left behind, the lightened boats sail swiftly. With a preoccupied human heart, crossing the ocean proves arduous.” (“The Knowing Heart”) This is the truth of the universe. Only when we change our human thinking and let go of attachments, can we realize and feel Master's grand mercy and greatness.
II. A car collided with me and threw me more than three meters away on January 30th last year. I just walked away after getting up. I passed a test of life and death. Afterwards I wrote an experience-sharing article titled “Cultivation through Enlightenment” and it was published on Minghui website. Since I've faced life and death in a righteous way, my body has changed. My age spots have become lighter and smaller, and gradually faded away.
When the swelling on my left leg from the accident was gone, I noticed that there was still one more half-inch swelling on top of my bone. I realized Master had put a flesh-pad on my leg the moment I was hit. So my leg didn't get broken. It used to be hard for me to have the soles of my feet facing upward when sitting in the full-lotus position. Now the soles of my feet can face upward in lotus position.
When I was enduring the hardship, I lost about ten pounds. My pants became bigger and the belt became looser. But three months later, my weight became normal again. Now, when I feel tired after hard work, it's fine for me to lie down and sleep even without a quilt. But previously if I did something like that, I would have cramp in my legs and have trouble standing up or walking. I feel I'm young again.
Master said, "The still meditation requires sitting in meditation for a long time. “ (“The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection”) When I meditate, I endured great pain again and again. I noticed that when it hurts, blood goes downwards. My feet feel warm. My head, bone, flesh, organs, brain are all changing.
Master said, "It’s hard to endure, but you can endure it. It’s hard to do, but you can do it." (“Zhuan Falun”) I realized happiness comes after enduring the moment when it hurts most.
A truly-determined practitioner's adamantine will was forged in tolerance. Righteous belief is the base of righteous thoughts. Only when we can truly accomplish it, can we truly improve ourselves. My karma was eliminated mainly from my legs.
III. The cultivation environment has changed a lot in Chicago. Some practitioners went to other cities and some new faces came to join us here. Because the leaders of some projects were gone and the new arrivals have no experience, we are short of hands in many projects. What shall we do? We, veteran practitioners, should take the responsibilities and try our best to make everything move smoothly.
Take building the parade float for example. The coordinator used to be a young practitioner, and what I needed to do was just some labour work. Now I'm in charge of it totally. I felt the importance of cooperation as a whole, and experienced the difficulty of coordination. When I find out something needs to be done, I take the initiative to do it.
There are four old cars to deliver practitioners and newspaper, as well as taking part in parades and other activities. Though drivers are available, problems cannot be solved in time when cars don't work. The coordinator cannot pay attention to such a detail. I cannot drive. But I can handle fixing them in time and give them good maintenance.
I realized that a practitioner became a particle of Dafa after finishing cultivation. Master makes us cultivate to be King and Lords of our universes during our life time. We need to make our mind and soul larger and larger. When we notice something needs to be done, we do that voluntarily. Dafa is harmonizing all sentient beings. What we need to cultivate is for upgrading and improving as a whole.
Master said,
"In life, nothing sought,
In death, regretting naught;
Washing away all wrong thought,
Buddhahood, with less adversity, is wrought."
(“Nothing Kept” in “Hong Yin”)
Dafa disciples are selfless lives for others. I still sometimes have bad thoughts coming into my mind that need to be rejected. I know I haven't reached the Fa’s requirements in cultivation. I need to progress with much more diligence in genuine cultivation.
Master had taught the Fa in mid-US for a couple of times. Mid-US is a good environment for cultivation. It was predestinated relationship that has brought us together. I have too many words to say, as I've got too much from the Fa. I'd like to share during small group Fa study time with practitioners. We should finish our last steps in cultivation by doing the Three Things well. We need to improve and sublime together as a whole.
Thank you Master!
Thank you Dafa!
Thank you my fellow practitioners!
